[Gamestop] Steam Controller and Steam Link $35 Each

I might be tempted to cash in some of my gift cards on this. I do have a lot of Steam games in my inventory list. I should put my consoles on hold with game playing and try out more of my PC purchases. Thanks for the posting! 

 
If you plan on buying CIV 6 at launch, steam has a bundle with a controller for $90. Hopefully by then, it will also be the revised version.
 
Thanks for the heads up, I've been wanting these for a while but couldn't stomach $50/ea. At this price I'm good with giving them a shot.

I picked up both in store and they rang up the same price. The Steam controller had a 10% off sticker on it so it knocked it down to 31.50. YMMV on that I guess, not sure if every store has the same discount.
 
MajorMullet said:
Thanks for the heads up, I've been wanting these for a while but couldn't stomach $50/ea. At this price I'm good with giving them a shot.

I picked up both in store and they rang up the same price. The Steam controller had a 10% off sticker on it so it knocked it down to 31.50. YMMV on that I guess, not sure if every store has the same discount.
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Mine was not 10 percent off but I used some coupons alongside my credit. Thank you flipageddon. Can't wait to try these out
 
How timely, I just bought a Steam Link from Amazon last week. I've just put one on hold in-store near me and will return the one from Amazon.

chnandler_bong said:
Has anyone had any luck with the Steam Link?
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So far I'm pretty happy. My PC specs fwiw: i5 4670k, EVGA GTX 760 SC, Intel SSD. PC built in 2013, so a few years old but fairly nice hardware. On a full gigabit network from PC to Steam Link. Playing on a 42 inch 1080p Panasonic Plasma with wired Xbox 360 controller. Now that that's out of the way...

I've mostly been playing the Witcher 3, which is game a lot of people have reported trouble with. It's been long enough that I think some issues with the Steam Link have been ironed out, cuz for me it's been fine. And mine is a GOG.com copy that I added as a non-steam shortcut. I did notice some visual quality drop the first time I used it (I used to have my PC & TV in the same room, plugged right in via HDMI, and at first it didn't look nearly as good as that); there was lots of low bitrate-type grain, but after tweaking some of the Link's streaming settings, it now looks great, about as good as hard-wired video to my eyes...

My monitor is 1920x1200 which is usually a pain in the ass trying to extend to a 1920x1080 tv (different aspect ratios). The Link's been great in this regard. The streaming seems to be done on a window-by-window basis, and it seems to want to take whatever the PC's active window is and make that full screen on your tv. This is nice for me, as I can run The Witcher at 1920x1080 in a borderless window, and the Link displays that full window natively on the tv... but all this is only as long as you're running it in Steam Big Picture Mode (basically the standard UI on the system). See, you can choose to minimize Steam and just stream your desktop, but once the Link minimizes Steam it loses most of its magic, and it kind of becomes just a dumb stream of your whole computer. It loses the ability to manage the active windows with a controller or scale those windows to full screen, so you need a mouse and keyboard nearby (or run back and forth to your computer). I watched a blu-ray this way last night. I worked great and it looked great, so if you have something like a logitech K400 this becomes a really nice way to have full desktop functionality on your tv. You just don't have that seamless controller experience that you get when you're in the Big Picture Mode ui, but you can get back to BPM any time by simply hitting the guide button on your attached controller.

Now for those of you with alternate monitor resolutions, when you minimize steam and just view the desktop, the Link takes your 16:10 or 21:9 or whatever desktop image and adjusts it with black bars onto your 16:9 tv. If you add your media player as a non-steam shortcut I think it may work properly as a full screen 1080p window, but like I said once you choose minimize BPM and just show desktop, you lose the ability to run individual apps in a 1080p window.. This is all a non-issue if your monitor is 1080p though. And FORTUNATELY it cannot force your PC resolution to change and fuck up the placement of your desktop icons at all. I hate that shit... *ahem WINDOWS ahem*

TL;DR: On a gigabit home network the Steam Link has been great for me so far, especially after tweaking some of it's built in streaming settings. You can easily shrink away Steam and use the Link to stream your full PC desktop. If your PC monitor resolution is different from 1920x1080 (or, even more troublesome, a different aspect ratio like 16:10 or an Ultrawide 21:9 monitor) then you will likely experience SOME scaling headaches at least SOME time or another, but you're probably used to that by now, and the Link still handles it better than Windows overall.

 
steam controller is tempting. I know most games support to the 360 controller. Does any game that have 360 controller support work with the steam controller? or is it a whole new thing and games are slowly getting support added?

 
YugiMoto said:
If I can to play Counter Strike:GO will this get the job done?
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Steam Link is just a streaming device you can hook up to your TV. Steam Controller might be good for CS:GO, but I'm not too sure how rev1's pointing and clicking zone works when compared to the traditional mouse. For hardcore CS:GO players, the small casting lag and different style of clicking and trigger-shooting might not be good enough for competitive play.

 
Figured out why the one I bought had a 10% off sticker on it - it was already opened.  It looks brand new and everything was in the box but it was definitely used before because it asked if I wanted to use the other person's controller settings when I plugged it in.  Given it's in like new condition I would probably still pick it over a new one but I think they should be a little more transparent about stuff being "open box".

 
Went to gamestop and got the Steam Link. It was rediculously easy to set up, plugged in my Logitech F710 and launched Rocket League and i was gaming instantly without having to configure anything. I'm using a powerline adapter and it was working much better than my PlaystationTV, but i had to make sure AMD gpu coding acceleration was checked in in-home streaming settings since i have an AMD card. Turned on QoS while in settings, booted up Just Cause 3 and it worked just fine.

 
WickedEndoNinja said:
steam controller is tempting. I know most games support to the 360 controller. Does any game that have 360 controller support work with the steam controller? or is it a whole new thing and games are slowly getting support added?
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So when people say every game supports the 360 controller, what they mean is that just about every game supports xinput. The steam controller can also use xinput, but you can configure it to work like a keyboard as well. Basically, it'll work in literally every game, to a degree. That said, a lot of games don't have great support for mixed controls, so you might not be able to mix and match keyboard + mouse and xinput input. That's unfortunately the controllers biggest flaw and there is nothing that can be done about it, because using the touchpad on any setting other than mouse is undesirable, yet most of the other controls are much better with xinput commands. Now, some games will work fine mixing and matching, and in those games it's a fantastic controller that is arguably superior to other gamepads.

Take fallout 4 for example. It does not support both a controller and keyboard and mouse working at the same time. So you can pick good movement and easy interaction with the world, with shitting aiming, or great aiming with shitty movement (limited to wasd input and digital, not analog) and overly complicated button settings.

Honestly, if you have a standard controller, it's more of a toy than a replacement. I like using it, but I still pick up my xbox controller far more often. However, if all you've ever dreamed of is playing a strategy game on the couch or kicking back to grind in an MMO comfortably, get the controller. There are a lot of neat features making it possible, and an actual enjoyable experience.

 
It's tempting but I already have the Nvidia Shield Tv which does a great job at streaming games ,Any features that I'm missing with the steam Link?

 
I hate gamestop i picked my controller and link up last night and when i got home i noticed the link had been carefully opened then closed and was missing the power supply!!!!

 
So you can use this controller just on your pc right? Everything I saw it was being used on a TV. I just want a controller to use on my pc.

And can you use it for others programs besides steam? Like say in MAME? Ultimately thats what Id use it for the most.

 
MrClark said:
So you can use this controller just on your pc right? Everything I saw it was being used on a TV. I just want a controller to use on my pc.

And can you use it for others programs besides steam? Like say in MAME? Ultimately thats what Id use it for the most.
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Yes, it works on your PC lol. As of right now, the steam controller only has support for games running through steam, including non-steam games being used through steam. You'd probably be better off using something else for MAME, although if run through steam, it would technically work.

 
ZabaZu said:
Yes, it works on your PC lol. As of right now, the steam controller only has support for games running through steam, including non-steam games being used through steam. You'd probably be better off using something else for MAME, although if run through steam, it would technically work.
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I figured as much, but like I said I mostly saw it being talked about as being used with a tv, so I didnt know for sure if its sole purpose was to be used with the steam link device, or it required the steam link.

 
I remember how this gimmicky controller was supposed to revolutionize gaming... then people actually used one...

GG guis!

 
It says to link the controller to the Link itself. Can I just use the controller already synced with my PC while I use this?

EDIT: No one is reading my question because they get distracted by the dancing booties above me. Damn you NeoMonk!

 
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The link will also let you stream stuff off your computer.  So I can use it to stream the FoxSports GO app to my TV for example.

 
is there any advantage to using the steam link instead of just running hdmi from my laptop to tv? besides the obvious that i have to get off my ass and move the laptop over by the tv.

 
Shropt said:
It says to link the controller to the Link itself. Can I just use the controller already synced with my PC while I use this?

EDIT: No one is reading my question because they get distracted by the dancing booties above me. Damn you NeoMonk!
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Don't have one, but I don't see why that wouldn't work. It uses the streaming software that you'd use to stream to another computer, so you could test that yourself (assuming you have another computer around).

ritchardf said:
is there any advantage to using the steam link instead of just running hdmi from my laptop to tv? besides the obvious that i have to get off my ass and move the laptop over by the tv.
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I don't have one, but I can't think of any advantage. At best, the experience will be a little bit worse than running HDMI. The steam link is more for the person that has a big heavy desktop in a separate room where moving it isn't an appealing option. Oh and when something inevitably goes wrong at some point, cause PC gaming, you'll deeply sigh when you realize you need to get up and go to your laptop to fix it. PC Master Race! :(

 
ZabaZu said:
Don't have one, but I don't see why that wouldn't work. It uses the streaming software that you'd use to stream to another computer, so you could test that yourself (assuming you have another computer around).

I don't have one, but I can't think of any advantage. At best, the experience will be a little bit worse than running HDMI. The steam link is more for the person that has a big heavy desktop in a separate room where moving it isn't an appealing option. Oh and when something inevitably goes wrong at some point, cause PC gaming, you'll deeply sigh when you realize you need to get up and go to your laptop to fix it. PC Master Race! :(
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The only advantage I can think of is if your gaming PC isn't a laptop and isn't within feasible HDMI range (different floor, across the house, at the pool, etc.).

 
Ordered a Steam Link from Amazon w/ the price match seeing as I play 99% of my PS4 from my PSTV and this would serve the same purpose for PC... might grab a Steam Controller if they match that as well, or if Gamestop doesn't give me my Rewards Points back that they stole and turned into a $5 off coupon. Class Action Lawsuit material right there!

 
jkimrey said:
Anyone know how long the price will last on the Link,
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GS says threw the 7th, pretty sure their sale weeks changes on Wed.

So I'd assume it'll be that price most places till then. If not you might be stuck getting it at GS after Sunday.

 
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